BERNIE COL: Overtime session could bring first family to Springfield

Thursday

May 31, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 31, 2007 at 11:24 AM

Illinois' first family seems to be contemplating a significant stay in the Executive Mansion this summer.

"In the event we are in overtime session this summer, Mrs. (Patti) Blagojevich called the Springfield Park District to ask about swim lessons for Annie and ice skating opportunities for Amy," said Rebecca Rausch, spokeswoman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

BERNARD SCHOENBURG

Illinois' first family seems to be contemplating a significant stay in the Executive Mansion this summer.

"In the event we are in overtime session this summer, Mrs. (Patti) Blagojevich called the Springfield Park District to ask about swim lessons for Annie and ice skating opportunities for Amy," said Rebecca Rausch, spokeswoman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Annie - who turned 4 in April - is learning to swim, while Amy, 10, "has been skating for quite some time" and participates in ice skating competitions, Rausch said.

This, of course, is good news for those who have long thought the governor and his family, who live in Chicago, should get to know Springfield a little better. It's not such good news for lawmakers, who just may think they have personally spent enough time in the capital city this spring.

Durbin reflects on his job

Sometimes, with his unassuming manner as he speaks to a crowd, it's difficult to remember that Assistant U.S. Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin of Springfield is way up there as far as our national government goes.

Even Durbin marvels at the position he's in, as he did last week while addressing a roomful of mostly veterans at American Legion Post 809 on Springfield's east side.

"Some of you know I was born and raised in East St. Louis," he said, finding at least one member of the crowd with a similar background. Durbin noted he came to Springfield 38 years ago.

"This is where we raised our kids, and Springfield's home," he said.

"But there are moments in this business right now where I have to stop and pinch myself and say, 'I can't believe that this is the same Dick Durbin that used to eat chili at the Jackson Club,'" he said, referring to a former Springfield Democratic hangout.

Every two weeks, Durbin said, he is among nine members of Congress invited by President George W. Bush "to sit around the Cabinet table and talk about the important issues, like the war in Iraq."

"There we are sitting with the president of the United States for an hour," he said. "Just one on one. In conversation."

"I think about that all the time. And I think, 'You know what, when it comes your turn to ask a question, Durbin, there are an awful lot of people (who) want to make sure you ask the most important questions - things that make a difference.'"

At his last such encounter, Durbin said, he told the story of a wounded Iraq veteran, Eric Edmundson, who is being treated at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

"I said, 'Mr. President, this may be a personal question, but I want to ask you - have you ever thought that it may reach a point where you cannot ask America to send more soldiers, 'cause Iraq is not doing what they're supposed to do and this is not going to end the way you want it to? Is there a point in your mind where you feel like you couldn't ask America to send more soldiers?'"

"He said, 'Yes, but this isn't the point,' and so forth and so on."

When the meeting broke up, Bush came over and said he wanted to talk more about the wounded soldier - who Durbin said can now take some steps.

"He says, 'It breaks my heart too,'" Durbin said of his conversation with Bush. "And I said, 'I'm sure it does. It has to. I mean, you're the commander in chief. You made the decision for this war. It has to break your heart.'"

Durbin thinks such exchanges are useful.

"I could stand up and beat on the table and say you're wrong, this that and the other. That's not going to get us anywhere. But rather to get him to think and to join in his thinking about where this is headed, how this might end. That's what I'm trying to do."

Durbin opposed the original resolution allowing the use of force in Iraq, but says he votes for every bill that funds the troops in the conflict.

The Simpsons contest

Perhaps his past as a reporter and political columnist makes Joe Harris look at things differently, but I found some common ground with a letter to the editor from him that was published in Monday's State Journal-Register. Harris urged Springfield to drop out of the contest to have Springfield named hometown of the Simpsons cartoon characters.

"I think it's terrific," Davlin said of the contest, which is linked to the coming release of a movie featuring the Simpsons. "If we get an extra $100 in the city of Springfield because of tourism, it's worth it. If we get an extra thousand or $100,000 in tourism money, so be it. ... That's what helps pay our bills. I mean, tourism is a big part of what we do here in the city of Springfield, and, you know, it's no more than one more gimmick, if you want to use that word."

It's worth "whatever it takes" to get people to make Springfield a one- or two-night destination, Davlin said.

"For someone to take it that serious," the mayor said of somebody worried about the tastefulness of the cartoon, "they've got too much time on their hands."

I assume when he says "whatever it takes," the mayor might have some limit in mind. But who knows?

Anyway, congratulations to Harris on his recent retirement. He was a Statehouse pressroom fixture for years at a legislative reporting firm, State Capital Information Service. Harris and Luke Carey formerly were the owners. Carey now is sole owner.

Harris worked at the old Illinois State Journal from 1961 to 1967, including writing a column, until he went to work for Republican gubernatorial candidate John Henry Altorfer, who lost the 1968 primary to Richard Ogilvie. Harris worked for Ogilvie in the general election campaign and later was a spokesman for the old Department of Public Works and Buildings, which was headed by a guy named Bill Cellini. Harris later was a petroleum industry lobbyist and worked for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Michael Howlett, who won a primary in 1976.

The timing of his switch to the Democratic Party, however, came just before Republican Jim Thompson won the general election that year.

"And the Democrats just now got back into office with the worst governor I've ever seen," he said.

Harris, 68, and wife Marilyn, who will continue as a science teacher at Blessed Sacrament School, have three children and six grandchildren. Some travel this summer will help fill the time off.

Roberts goes Green

Taylorville's Vic Roberts has thrown his decal-covered, coal miner's hat into the ring again, but with a twist. This year, the 74-year-old longtime Democrat with, shall we say, interesting theories, says he's switched to the Green Party to run for Congress in the 19th Congressional District.

He says the Green philosophy better "personifies my political ideology," but he also says he hasn't been in contact with any of that party's officials.

"I'm on my own here," he says. "In all my perennial candidacies, I've been on my own."

Roberts got on the November ballot in only one of those races, losing in 1978 to then-incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Findley in the old 20th Congressional District.

He notes with pride that, last spring, although he lost the primary in the 19th to Danny Stover of Centralia, with just 38.4 percent of the vote, he did win majorities in Christian and Montgomery counties.

Roberts' Web site, www.vicroberts.net, has lengthy statements that are not exactly mainstream. He believes, for example, that "our government is being manipulated by the organized wealth of a small but powerful group of super rich Wall Street bankers, global financiers, and multinational industrialists known as the NEW WORLD ORDER. This small group of people have organized their immense wealth and power for the purpose of ruling the world for their own selfish pleasure, thus, turning citizens into their subjects."

U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, appears vulnerable in 2008 because of his oversight of the scandal-plagued congressional page program. But no Democratic candidate has yet emerged in the 19th.

But at least there is Roberts - unless an energized Green Party finds somebody to challenge him in its primary.

New job for Tirey

Kevin Tirey, 33, of Springfield has a new job as labor relations specialist for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Tirey began May 1 in the new job, which pays $68,124 annually. He comes to IDOT from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, where he was chief of operations for the office of resource conservation.

Before that, he was with the Environmental Protection Agency. The Associated Press has reported that Tirey was already an experienced state worker in 2004, when he was labeled as an intern and given the duties of the EPA's personnel director. He made $54,600 at the EPA. He had also been a Democratic campaign staffer, the AP said.

At IDOT, Kevin Tirey took the place of James Shupenus, who moved laterally to a job as vehicle inspection field supervisor. A former Democratic precinct committeeman in Springfield, he's making $73,020. Mike Claffey of IDOT said Shupenus is one of two field supervisors in the state who oversee school bus inspectors.

Bernard Schoenburg is political columnist for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached at 788-1540 or bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.

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